The main competitor to the Reading Post has reiterated its faith in print after Trinity Mirror announced the title would go digital-only.
Reading Chronicle editor Lesley Potter said her title would carry on delivering news in both formats.
“We at the Reading Chronicle have absolutely no intention of abandoning print. We have been around since 1825 delivering news to the people of Reading and will have every intention of continuing to publish newspapers the way we have been doing for nearly two centuries,” she said.
“We believe our readers deserve to have a choice in how they access their news, whether it’s in print or on our website, and we are going to carry on in that vein.”
First launched in the 1960s as an evening paper, the Post is to cease print publication along with midweek stablemate GetReading and sister title the Wokingham Times and Bracknell Times.
Lesley, who recently took over as editor from Maurice O’Brien, described the move as a sad day for the staff and for the people of Reading.
She said: “First and foremost it is a sad day for the people who will be losing their jobs and the families affected by redundancy.
“It is also a sad day for the people of Reading to lose the Reading Post. We have been fierce rivals over the years, but we have always had a healthy respect for one another.
“However Trinity Mirror have made their own decision and that is very much up to them.
“We have just moved our head office back into the middle of Reading so we are investing heavily in our newspapers. We are not going anywhere, and we are proud to serve the people of Reading.”
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Please don’t gloat. Your own sales figures – less than 5000 – hardly indicate the people of Reading want to buy your paper!
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Check again in a year. Nice thought though.
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Observer50, not sure I see any gloating, just a bit of sympathy for the people who have lost their jobs. Yes they will try and take advantage of TM’s decision, why wouldn’t they?
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It would be all too easy to suggest the Reading Chronicle will have a big gain from this. But I doubt it. Look at the facts. Circulation: some of the Post readers also but the Chronicle anyway. Others will choose just not to buy a local paper so at best the Chronicke sales will only pick up a small boost.
Advertising: most of the local advertisers buy space in both papers already. Trinity Mirror will fight hard to retain the few who only advertise with them. National advertisers buy their space via the Trinity Mirror national sales team. They don’t simply ask for an ad in a Reading paper, they buy a package in papers across the country. So again the Chronicle is highly unlikely to see much of a boost to its business.
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Nice sentiment, but the Post blows the Chronicle out of the water.
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Us football hooligans rely on the Chronicle for the crime stats.
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Apostrophe. Not any more, it don’t!
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